


Heartstrings

by kunehonim



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angsty?, Kyungsoo is blond, M/M, Mute!SeBaek, Romance, i dont know i was just typing away im sorry for this mess, school au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 18:10:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8067559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kunehonim/pseuds/kunehonim
Summary: It was their first bloom of love. Not all flower that wilts fade forever.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A/N:- ***this fic was supposed to be titled takotsubo syndrome referring to that heartbreak illness but then I thought that it would be somewhat…??? Inappropriate idk OTL I looked it up and it felt like it didn’t fit in ; A ;//

Chanyeol knocks for the third time with a soft thud coming from the impact of his knuckle against the wooden door.

It’s already the suggested lights out hour and fewer students are out and about at this time of the evening. Chanyeol couldn’t sleep again, the pain in his chest lingering. It’s been months since he started feeling this way, been months since he came out of the clinic, with the campus nurse Jongdae giving a sheepish grin as he confirms for the umpteenth time that nothing was wrong with him.

Somehow, Chanyeol wouldn’t believe his words because the teasing curl of his lips seem doubtful.

 

The door quietly creaks before him, a brunet peeking at the slit of the opening as though he didn’t expect him to be standing there. Again. Like he stood there the same time he did the evening before, and the evening before that too.

Chanyeol flashes a gentle grin, handing a sticky note for the boy to read.

“Hi Baek,” it’s the same crumpled letter from last night, the brunet recognizes, “Wanna go out for coffee?”

Baekhyun purses his lips at this; Chanyeol knows he’s hesitant again. Just like the first time he offered. Baekhyun will look at him with a pair of lost eyes, searching, and then he will turn back to look at the inside of his room, as if checking on something, someone—who Chanyeol knows is Kyungsoo, aware of the two’s going-strong friendship. They’re roommates now, if Chanyeol remembers correctly.

“If you can’t tonight, another time then?” He offers, but Baekhyun shakes his head, looking up at him with hooded eyes.

After a few minutes of standing around, Baekhyun gives him a nod of the head, okay.

 

They met in a café, with all irony attached. Baekhyun was a student from the building standing after the one that Chanyeol stares at when he’s in his classroom.

Baekhyun’s classes are held in the special building, for the fact that their school caters to every student in need of education. Baekhyun falls under the category of those who were once upon a time, picked on for having a disability that they were born with: Baekhyun was born mute.

It’d been Chanyeol who got too close to him, writing him notes in the morning when he used to work for the café, as he needed small funds until his dad finally got his footing right in the business that he started.

Baekhyun was a social butterfly for someone who spoke without words; he was cute, gentle and very easy to approach. It’s why Chanyeol became even more interested in him, through time finding out that both of them shared too common of things, liked a lot of the same things and even found time a hindrance as it passed too quick for their likings.

It’s how the constant meetups in the café became a routine, how even though Chanyeol stopped working there; it became their usual spot to meet because they knew when the other would be there.

It’s how the both of them earned a table in said café, being reserved to them by the head barista, Kim Minseok who’s become fond of watching them talk across the counter even if it meant Chanyeol used to slack for a half an hour to one in his shifts.

It was only a matter of time until they became conscious of each other.

 

Baekhyun being honest with himself for the lack of words on his side had been the first one to put it out on the table figuratively and literally. They were both working on Maths, Chanyeol chattering away as he told Baekhyun how his day went, smiling at the taller as he heard them all loud and clear.

It was when the male paused to sip on his drink that Baekhyun braved his feelings. Very slowly, he pushed a small baby pink sticky note to his side, towards Chanyeol’s sight.

He didn’t know how the male would react given that they’ve only known each other for 9 months then. Clad and drowning in his fluffy scarf, Baekhyun had his first taste of rejection, his first ever confession becoming a mess, shards of his broken heart on the floor as Chanyeol scrambles out of his seat, averting his eyes from him as he muttered that he forgot he had to be somewhere in 5 minutes’ time with anxiety in his voice.

Baekhyun didn’t have the need to stop him.

He didn’t have the voice.

 

It was easy to stay away from Chanyeol from then on. The male didn’t seek him out and Baekhyun found no more reason for him to go back to the café. After how Chanyeol gave him that look of pity, he knew that he wouldn’t for the life of him be able to get Chanyeol to look at him romantically.

Baekhyun falls into the routine of walking from his dorm to the nearest convenience store. After being caught in the rain as he came home from the library, he made a wonderful discovery of how the said store had a delicious-tasting brewed cup of coffee. He found himself coming back, eventually tucking away the memory of ever confessing and being rejected by the only person he let in too close.

Baekhyun barely spoke to anyone with sticky-notes anymore, waltzing away from conversations, opting to keep in his circle as he kept his conversations with hand-signing.

 

Chanyeol waits by the door as Baekhyun gets ready. When the door clicks followed by the familiar creak of the old wood, he stands himself proud by the side, ready to walk at Baekhyun’s pace.

The air is silent around them and Chanyeol is at a loss for words. Baekhyun hasn’t really been the same talkative person that he was before and he’s been weary over this small fact, that the boy he used to share things with simply has his eyes on the road ahead, his hands not moving as per the usual conversation— the familiar glint of excitement that he looked forward to witness in his eyes ceases to exist.

It makes Chanyeol’s sad to know that he caused this. It makes him wonder why Baekhyun ever still puts up with him.

 

It happened at around 11:50 in the evening. Almost past midnight when Chanyeol got over himself, knocking on Baekhyun’s door as his clothes dripped wet on the floor. He called Baekhyun’s name, over and over again, waiting for him to open up but Baekhyun wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Chanyeol was scared. He felt his heart do bad tumbles when he saw Baekhyun being offered flowers. It was Valentines’ Day the next day, and with it falling under holiday, Chanyeol had panicked out of his wits, because Baekhyun smiled at those who gave him gifts. He bowed gracefully at them and shook their hands, gave them sticky notes that had his handwriting on it.

It’s then that Chanyeol found out that he didn’t like the idea of Baekhyun being close to anyone else. It’s how he came to feel the regret when he stayed away from him after he offered him his heart—it’s when Chanyeol realized that he may have been harbouring the same feelings for the boy, that he didn’t care about what people said, or what other things prevented them from meeting.

It’s been a good few months since he ran away from Baekhyun. He tried to see him again, but his efforts ended up useless, because by the time that the new year came, Chanyeol had no idea as to where else Baekhyun could be, dawning into him that he just let the best thing in his life slip away from him.

An hour later, February 14, Chanyeol was unconscious by the brunet’s doorway, running a bad fever.

Chanyeol woke up in the extra bed in Baekhyun’s room, a damp towel placed over his forehead and a bowl of soup prepared.

The taller didn’t know if he was dreaming when he awoke. Baekhyun was standing by his own bed, holding the damp bouquet of roses that he bought on the way from the campus. Baekhyun’s smiling.

In it was an envelope of the longest hand-written letter that Chanyeol’s ever poured his heart on in his whole life. Even his mother didn’t get such a thing from him. Only when he saw in his fuzzed sight how Baekhyun began tearing the letter open did he succumb to sleep once more, leaving it all to the brunet.

 

Chanyeol stops at his tracks, letting Baekhyun go ahead. He feels it again, the sudden tension inside his chest, the tightening of his chest muscles. The taller hits his palm against it, groaning momentarily. When he notices Baekhyun stop, he clears his throat, willing the pain to go away.

Chanyeol efforts a smile towards the brunet, who turns around again heading to the convenience store; it’s times like these when Chanyeol thanks Baekhyun for not talking to him at all.

It takes him minutes before he finds his footing again. As Chanyeol walks into the store, he doesn’t search for Baekhyun. He knows the boy is already well on his way towards the coffee brewing area, holding their cup towards the attendee. All he has to do is find them a seat, if not, then a table to stand across one another; for Chanyeol to take out the crumpled paper at the back pocket of his worn-out jeans and start scribbling on it to try and get Baekhyun to communicate with him as soon as he hands him his cup, albeit carefully so that their hands don’t touch.

 

They started dating a week after Chanyeol recovered from his fever. He’d barely been to the special building of the campus, just because he really hasn’t thought of dropping by there as he knew no one. Baekhyun invited him, sent him a text message saying he’ll wait by the studio in the third floor. Chanyeol agreed, it being the first time since they saw each other again. He still hasn’t properly thanked the brunet for nursing him back to health.

Nine and a discontinued pair of months since Chanyeol met Baekhyun, he had to say that he’s always had a very pure and innocent image of him as they grew closer to one another.

That image changed when he went up to their supposed meeting place. It was quiet save for the booming music coming from the studio that Baekhyun talked about and sure he did expect him to be there, watching, maybe. Not busting moves against a tall male, whose hands were wrapped around his waist as they stuck close to each other, their bodies joining the beats. Chanyeol had to say that the sight shocked him so much he tumbled backwards with a gasp but due to his height, he was very much of an obvious visitor that Baekhyun quickly spotted him, turning towards the door where the upper half of it was glass. Chanyeol saw the way Baekhyun’s focus quickly shifted to him and he left his partner just like that.

The taller male scowled at the sight of Baekhyun running towards him, and Chanyeol saw him sign something with his hands as if to call Baekhyun back to their little stunt.

When Baekhyun opened the door, the boy jumped into his arms, sweaty but all smiles. In that instant, he was under a spell, and the image earlier on burned to ashes as the brunet pulled him in towards the male that held Baekhyun earlier.

The male stared at him, his lips to a thin line. “Who’s he? Is he the guy you’ve been talking about? That guy from Valentine’s?” Chanyeol could barely make out the hand signs—a little knowledge unknown to Baekhyun is that Chanyeol has been taking up extra classes just to get to communicate with him like this, to understand the people around him too.

“Yes.” Baekhyun beamed. “He’s Chanyeol. My boyfriend.”

And in the instant that Chanyeol got the message—yes, he focused on that specific word—he blew his cover as he turned to Baekhyun with wide eyes.

The brunet obviously understood him like that, and Chanyeol ended up sputtering tons of hand-signs that couldn’t even form proper sentences. Baekhyun was astounded with what he could do.

It was the first time again that Baekhyun beamed at him brightly, his eyes turning to crescents and his pearly teeth making their appearance. Nobody could blame Chanyeol for pinching one cheek, Sehun—the guy introduced himself as Baekhyun’s childhood friend—on the other.

After Baekhyun changed out of his clothes, Chanyeol was well-prepared to walk back to the café that they hung out in.

“Can we go somewhere else?” Baekhyun handed him a note, “I don’t really like the memory from that place…”

Chanyeol was willing to please his boyfriend , “Do you have a place in mind?”

 

Baekhyun stared out the window to his right, Chanyeol watched intently. The pain in his heart is throbbing as he looks at the brunet, who’s holding his cup close to his lips just blowing on the drink.

Chanyeol knows that just like the night before, Baekhyun will not give him any words, but still, he tries. “How was your day?” the same worn out sticky note. The same trembling fingers he used to slide the paper towards the brunet.

The petite barely slipped a peek. Chanyeol’s heart constricts.

“Are you really not going to talk to me anymore, Baek?” Chanyeol asks this time.

Baekhyun’s eyes stray towards him.

Looking down onto his own hands, the taller male let out a sigh. He pursed his lips back as he sipped on his drink, deeming it warm enough to chug it all in one go.

Chanyeol doesn’t notice Baekhyun looking.

 

They lasted for a year, their relationship. Baekhyun got busy during the next year and Chanyeol was forced into joining the basketball team because of his height—his professor recommended him. It was the beginning of the rough roads, the beginning of challenges.

Soon, it became tiring to meet even in the convenience store that they always met up at, the place where their first date happened, where Chanyeol ran for him under the hard rain with a tattered umbrella—coming home with a fever but happy because Baekhyun had been scared of lightning that he was so happy he should up, he kissed him for the very first time. It got tiring after every activity and seeing Baekhyun too wrapped up under Sehun’s touch became a clouding of his judgement, the green monster taking residence in his heart.

Chanyeol didn’t know why he began ignoring Baekhyun. Maybe it was because Baekhyun never really talks about Sehun when they’re together—which was in its entire sense in itself was proper, not most boyfriends would want to talk about someone else. To Chanyeol it was because he wanted to get a better view of Baekhyun’s world. He knew their difference, and he knew just how much Baekhyun knows about him too because he’s talked over ages of things with him. Baekhyun had laughed, had frowned and had even gotten jealous of some of his narratives, and the taller male knew how unfair it was that he was treating him this way.

And when that misunderstanding was taking place, another one happens to come in, becoming the anchor to their relationship.

Baekhyun walked in on Chanyeol being confessed to in his classroom, the basketball player holding onto the letter and the smaller blond holding onto his arm almost intimately that it left a bitter taste in Baekhyun’s tongue.

He stepped away quickly. Scared and confused as to why Chanyeol began ignoring him in the first place, theorizing and thinking of piecing the puzzles together was quick to tell him that this was it: Chanyeol’s losing interest in him.

 

Chanyeol was defeated. As they walked back towards the dormitories, he steals a glance towards the brunet.

He’s so closed off. Chanyeol hates it.

He flattens the note that he’s been gripping on since earlier and holds it towards the brunet’s line of sight, it was the same note, but it was the backside, something else written there that Chanyeol hasn’t really had the heart to ask.

“Do you hate me? Still?”

 

It was another story when Chanyeol brought Baekhyun home with him to dinner. His older sister had been there with her husband, his mom all smiles when they ate. She’d been lovely throughout really, and Chanyeol’s father had been a very welcoming man, along with her sister and in-law who were warming up at the sight of them. It was that same lovely evening when everything turned to nightmare for Baekhyun. When he saw Chanyeol’s mother’s eyes turn sad when she’d piped up a question of “So how long have you known Chanyeol?” It wasn’t how she asked, but rather when Baekhyun answered with hand-sign language, Chanyeol being the one to speak up for him.

He saw the look that briefly brushed on him and he felt bad for himself. Pity. She’s pitying him.

For the remainder of the evening, Baekhyun stabbed on his food, not meeting anyone’s eyes. He didn’t squeeze back when Chanyeol held his hand under the table and he left briskly, after texting Sehun to call for him just so he could make up an excuse. Despite the ugly turnout of events, he still didn’t want to disappoint Chanyeol.

The rest of that was history really. Baekhyun came home disappointed, not bothering to let Chanyeol know he reached home safely.

 

The next morning, Chanyeol came to the studio, this time not alone but with the other petite that he’d begun hanging out with, Kyungsoo.

It’s been three months since their misunderstanding with the letter and Baekhyun had only known of how possessive he could get when it came to Chanyeol back then. Being in a relationship in itself was a new thing for him, it was understandable.

Sehun happily leaped towards them, scooping the blond male into an amorous hug for everyone to see, Kyungsoo left a sloppy kiss on the tall dancer’s cheeks, giggling to himself when Sehun blushed madly, like a baby.

Kyungsoo had been the one to help them clear up the misunderstanding. The guy had impressed the couple in their cold war, explaining to Baekhyun in a way that he could understand—after all, he was Chanyeol’s teacher for hand-sign language—telling him that he’s been begging Chanyeol to introduce him to Sehun.

It’s why this time, when Baekhyun begins ignoring Chanyeol, the couple knew they weren’t at fault anymore. Sehun never found out why Baekhyun sent him an SOS.

It’s then when things begin to fall apart.

 

Baekhyun read the note over and over again. He frowns at it and startles the taller male because he takes the paper and tears it apart. Despite his lack of response, they walk side by side trekking back to the campus.

The brunet takes a deep breath when he takes sight of the gate. Baekhyun’s heart throbs at the same time he catches Chanyeol at the corner of his eyes digging the heel of his palm over his chest.

It grabs Baekhyun’s attention.

 

“What do you mean you’re breaking up with me?” Chanyeol questioned his face paling in front of the petite.

Baekhyun had dropped the words to him as they’re walking back from the café. They visited once just because Minseok, the barista invited them personally.

“Why are you breaking up with me?” The taller pressed, because honestly, Baekhyun knew that this was the reaction he would get.

“You went out with me because you piti—“ his hand-writing messed up as Chanyeol pulls the note away from his hold.

“Pity? After a whole year you think I pity you?” Chanyeol scoffed with pain lingering in it. They were starting to make a commotion on the streets, that the male, out of frustration began signing his words, “Is this what’s on your mind these days? Is this why you can’t even look at me? Baekhyun, you’ve been like this after you came over, yet you won’t let me know what’s going on in your head and now you want to break up with me?”

Baekhyun stood without trying to offer his words anymore. He was hurt, and the mere fact that he ended up with a load of thoughts after that night just became more of a ton weighing him down on the shoulders. He realized a lot of things, things that weren’t even there in the first place. He realized that maybe it’s pity—maybe… It’s shame. Baekhyun’s heart ached at the thought—how could he think about Chanyeol this way when he’s so in love with the mere sight of him. Baekhyun hated the whirling in his head, the stupid whispers that said a lot of things about Chanyeol, what Chanyeol didn’t do and what he hasn’t done.

“Why won’t you say something? At least tell me why, Baek.” He urged.

 

“That’s the whole fucking point!” Baekhyun signed, tears threatening to spill as he let his emotions and insecurity get the best of himself. The green monster was there, envy, shame, jealousy. Everything be damned, he thought.

“That’s the whole fucking point Chanyeol. It’s been a year yet I don’t know everything about you! You tell me stories about your day but you won’t let me be in any of them. You tell me about your friends but you never let me meet them! It’s been a whole fucking year and I just realized how much I’m a failure that you’re… You’re probably not going to let me be there with you in the long run…” He sobbed, “I get that your parents may not be ready to know me, Yeol. I don’t know, maybe they never will—But you know what I just noticed? You always came, it’s not that I disliked you coming over, but after that night, when your parents looked at me like I was some kind of a lost cause, I thought, was Chanyeol hiding me away from everyone because he thinks I might get looked at like this or was it because he was ashamed of me?” He continued, staring at his hands as he let the words slip, not giving Chanyeol a chance to look him in the eyes.

“I know how much effort you put in me, Chanyeol, but sometimes I feel useless having to be the one that’s always being given extensive care. I’m not some invalid, sure maybe that’s what most of you think, but Chanyeol… I’m your fucking boyfriend yet all this time I’ve been nothing in other people’s eyes when I’m beside you.  Do you know how much that fucking hurts?” He blabbered on, losing sense, losing propriety, “You’ve already been to my world, Chanyeol. It’s easy for you to learn, but couldn’t you at least lend me a hand with yours?” He continued, his hands trembling as he kept going, the realization of it all hitting him raw because it comes into clear view even to himself, “no matter what I do, Yeol, even if I kick or punch the air nobody in your world would give me a second of their lives. I used to think that that was okay, but when other people began approaching you, like Kyungsoo did, I realized how easy it was for me to lose you just because I can’t do something so simple as to call your fucking name. I hate it. I hate feeling this way. You rejected me once Chanyeol, that was painful but this… Being with you yet being unable to really be with you—by your side; I hate it! I hate you! I hate you for making me this way!” He snapped, pushing at the male, bursting out at the seams, his peace disturbed, his routines messed up.

Baekhyun used to think that he was doing it for himself—that before Chanyeol gets the chance to hurt him, he should save himself first. But as he began letting the floodgates loose, he realized that it was so much more than that. “I just… “ Baekhyun tried, but he shook his head realizing that he couldn’t get the idea across, the thought across, the words more than he already tried .

“Let’s just end this, Chanyeol.”

 

Chanyeol gets a call in the middle of their walk. Baekhyun stands by, letting the male take it.

“Yeah Dad? No, I can’t tomorrow, I have an appointment at the hospital remember? No you don’t have to, I can take the bus there myself. I’ll be okay. Yeah, sure. Thanks.”

When they walked back, Baekhyun clenched his fists, tucking his lips tight as he walked back to his room. He didn’t  mean to eavesdrop, yet something in him becomes unsettled.

 

It was the first time that Baekhyun cried his heart out. He wasn’t going to deny the fact that he regretted what he’d done. He saw Chanyeol’s crest-fallen expression, revealing to him just how much wrong he was for bursting out on him like that.

Chanyeol didn’t even know what was going on in with him, he never bothered to tell.

It was Sehun who asked first why Chanyeol never came up anymore. The first time he did, Baekhyun didn’t tell a soul. When a week passed without a trace of the taller and Baekhyun only getting thinner and thinner as he skipped on his meals and slept on his heartache, it’s when he first felt the ugliest bite in his heart as though a chunk of it had gone to his ex- boyfriend.

Thinking Chanyeol as someone of his past still didn’t quite fit with his reality. And though it’s him who caused the damage, he thinks he’s the one who took the damage harder between them.

It will never be to his knowledge that Chanyeol’s life had broken down, a meltdown, the doctor said when he came home drastically changed from the cheerful façade he carried around. With nothing to lose, Chanyeol had sobbed and blamed his parents, eventually telling them the best thing in his life turned out to be the worst all because they didn’t heed his request to treat Baekhyun right . Because he finally finds out, that he never really did too when they were dating. He thought he was doing more than enough.

 

When they arrive by Baekhyun’s door, Chanyeol stops at his tracks, his smile missing compared to the evening before. It’s different, Baekhyun thinks.

Tonight was going to be different.

“I… I guess I’ll see you around, Baek.” Chanyeol mutters, his eyes not meeting his. It makes Baekhyun trembled inside because he doesn’t miss the fact that Chanyeol doesn’t bid him goodnight, he doesn’t say “Maybe we can again tomorrow?” Instead, he says to see him around.

Baekhyun swallows audibly at that.

He pales at the thought, clockworks turning in his mind.

 

“Baekhyun, I know something’s wrong. You’ve been pressing on your chest for a week now. I’m not stupid, can you please just talk to me.” Kyungsoo urged as he sent Sehun away—his boyfriend had been too oblivious of Baekhyun’s little gesture as his anger blinded him, all he could think about was how Chanyeol hurt Baekhyun he’d never let him see him in his own shadow.

Baekhyun shakes his head, “It’s nothing, Soo.” The boy signed.

Kyungsoo’s been hanging out with them even after the break-up. Baekhyun’s never been to Chanyeol’s building, so he doesn’t really know how he’s faring after what happened.

All he heard from Kyungsoo was that Chanyeol took a month off from classes, opting to take the summer class instead.

It was the last he heard of the male.

 

When another week passes that Baekhyun has a hand over his heart didn’t go unnoticed under Sehun’s eyes, it’s when he was dragged to the hospital after being told thousands of times by the clinic head nurse Zhang Yixing that he should get himself checked because he couldn’t tell him exactly what was going on. The nurse worried that maybe he will need a higher level of doctors to give him the answer  that he might need—all while Kim Jongdae, a newly hired nurse then had sprouted that he might be experiencing a mild heartburn.

The doctors said it’s nothing serious just like Zhang did. When Kyungsoo and Sehun stood by the lounge dumb-founded for what was told of the brunet, they scoffed in disbelief—Baekhyun knows they’re wondering why he’s even the one experiencing this, now that they actually know that it was him who broke up with the guy— “Acute what?” Kyungsoo deadpanned.

“It’s an acute heart muscle malfunction,” Baekhyun signed, his fingers trembling, “they asked me if I… broke up with someone or something like that. I said yes and they immediately told me what it was. They said I’m probably in the wrong place, but that it should go away after a week.”

When Baekhyun lifted his eyes to look at them, Kyungsoo’s mouth was agape, obviously not knowing what to say.

“You don’t get over a break up after a week, Baekhyun. That’s stupid.” Sehun signed with his eyes blank and face void of expression. It took the petite back because he’d never in the life of him see Sehun looking like that, what’s more—at him like that. “Cry if you have to; don’t expect that to go away for a week because I’m sure as hell it won’t. I know you get nightmares even when you nap which has never happened before and if it’s all caused by this recent event, then I ask of you if you could please stop pretending that you’re fine? At least not in front of me.

When we go back to your dorm, you’re going to cry your eyes out and you’re going to let us comfort you do you understand? At least be happy that you have us. Who the hell knows what your ex is going through right now.”

 

“Uh, I guess I have to go. It’s getting quite late now.” Chanyeol smiled albeit only a little.

Baekhyun could see the sadness in it, as if he was losing hope, as if he was losing Chanyeol again for the second time.

It’s been four months since their break up; Chanyeol came back three months ago, Baekhyun heard. The campus is undergoing a huge change as the curriculums were altered, with the Parent-Teacher Association deciding that it would do great for the whole school to allow their students to live in an environment shared by all. There was a rushed construction of bridges along the three buildings. Physical Education classes are shared in one field, and some classes are being shared now too.

Baekhyun dreaded that news when it first became public, but when he saw the look in his best friend’s eyes when he read it, who shot off running towards Kyungsoo’s building without much of an explanation, Baekhyun watched from somewhere in the rooftop, seeing them through the windows of how they hugged and be gross in public.

He wondered if he would’ve done the same had he stayed with Chanyeol.

 

When Chanyeol is about to turn away, he patted the male on the shoulder softly. When the taller turned back towards him with bewilderment, Baekhyun signed again for the first time, ever since Chanyeol came to see him again.

“Your chest?” He asked, patting on his own heart as he looked at Chanyeol. He felt weak staring at him like that.

The taller male looked down with a small smile upon his lips. Baekhyun didn’t like that he won’t look at him this time.

“It’s just a little bump on the road.” Chanyeol explains, “Mr Kim from the clinic said I’m fine but my mom recommends I go to the hospital. It’s been getting worse lately so they’re a little worried.”

“Heartburn?”

“I think it’s more than that.” The male uttered, brushing his hand behind his head. “Listen, Baek… I, well, I know it’s too late to say my piece but I—I just really wanted to apologize to you, for… For how we ended things.” He fidgeted, “I’m sorry that I was too blind to not think about your feelings, to not ask you. I think I got too caught up trying to be in your world that I couldn’t take you to see mine.

I’d just realized it after you told me and… I’m sorry if I made you think that I was ashamed of you or anything like that. You were always a social butterfly, so I thought that you’d tell me, and that—well… I, I think it doesn’t really matter at this point but,” he stopped, for a miniscule of a moment, Baekhyun felt his heart throb with unwanted hope, “I just wanted to thank you. For being in my life s’all. For letting me be in your world.”

Baekhyun could feel the lump in his throat; he could feel the burn in his eyes, the dryness of his lips inside and out. He could feel the treacherous pounding of his heart, the willingness to give in of his joints and the betrayal of his mind, of his soul. The petite didn’t realize that Chanyeol had already held his hands.

As the taller pulled on his hands to kiss his fingers, Baekhyun’s tears fell.

“I’ll always love you, Baek. I want you to know that whatever it is that you decide, I won’t take it against you. So please, please be happy again.”

 

For just one night, Baekhyun’s heart burned thoroughly as he cried on Kyungsoo’s lap.

Because this time, he let Chanyeol walk away.

 

Rumours broke out that Chanyeol dropped out of his course a week later. There was no goodbye, he didn’t show up after their last talk and even Kyungsoo didn’t know the details. It was all too sudden that despite the fact that Baekhyun had to have Sehun apply for his leave to cry in his dorm again for another week, his best friend didn’t mind.

 

After a couple of years, Baekhyun’s job took a sudden turn after he let Sehun go for an audition in one of the prestigious dance companies in the bustling city. Venturing around as graduates who wanted nothing but to pursue their passion, the both of them decided to join different contests and save up.

Later on Baekhyun decided to apply to a quaint dance school for special children and had taken onto the job quite well. He loved the idea, he loved the thought of it, but somehow nothing really felt right the day after Chanyeol had gone…

 

The town is small, a little further away from the new village that’d been open for lease. Everything was peaceful and quiet.

The school owner, Kim Jongin introduced himself as the somewhat successor of the little school. It was a school that his father had built in the loving memory of his older sister who was born mute. She loved watching ballerinas dance, and that was how the school happened.

Baekhyun had been familiarized with the town and the residents soon after. He’d heard a few chatters here and there, and have spoken to mothers who found it a joy to bring their children to the dance school as it was a difficulty for the regular schools have their young ones in. They worried that the children would feel odd and left out.

Most of them were thankful for it.

 

Baekhyun never came on Saturday and Fridays. Those were his days off, being Jongin alone to tend to the students as they didn’t really have a lot of attendees at those day slots.

He said he was alright too because his friend would come over anyways. Baekhyun had heard about him a few times.

“He doesn’t dance, but he stays to keep me company with the kids. He likes to hang around here when he has to take a break from all his writing and tutoring really. He came to town 3 or four years ago. He’s quite good, that lad.”

 

On a Saturday morning, Baekhyun passes by to greet Jongin a happy birthday.

“You’re an old man now, you dumb idiot.” Baekhyun’s eyes trail onto a pair of large hands. Baekhyun’s heart begins to throb, an old pocketed memory knocking on his heart as a man stood there.

 

Baekhyun drops the paper bag in his hand, his mouth agape. Jongin suddenly doesn’t exist, only the man before him, reflecting the same shocked reaction, and Baekhyun quivers at the realization.

His heart throbs, his jaw locking as he slowly closes his mouth. He’s lost, unblinking as his eyes travel from the male, jolting as many things flow in his mind, as if reality had just landed back into his consciousness and then Baekhyun is seeing the big picture. Interrupting. He’s interrupting something.

The male purses his lips back as he lowers his gaze, tearing his eyes away from him.

From him.

 

He tears his eyes away from Chanyeol and signs quickly towards Jongin’s way, whose expression has somewhat changed, probably reading something in the air. He knows Jongin is suspicious all of a sudden.

“I… I’ll be back later, Jongin.” Baekhyun says quickly, his knees wobble and attempt to betray him, but he finds his footing, turning on his joints making for the entranceway not long after he passed through it. The paper bag is forgotten as he hops out of the school’s entryway, shooting his feet quickly into his shoes not minding that his feet are barely in there.

His heart is aching-- it hurts. It hurts, it hurts-- Baekhyun tries not to think, but as quick as he left, he finds himself being pried out of his own bubble, he gasps, choking, there are tears.

Tears.

 

All tears.

 

Flowing.

 

They’re flowing.

 

It’s impossible for a wilted flower to bloom back to life. Not when it had such a tragic end-- not like this. Baekhyun’s heart shook.

“Baekhyun…” A voice, that voice whispers back life into his ears and he doesn’t even realize that he’s buried against the male’s chest, his fingers clutching onto the tall male’s jacket, his heart beating rapidly, his stomach doing tumbles. Baekhyun doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anymore.

“Baekhyun.” Chanyeol calls, and then he’s being beckoned to look up and he’s scared for what he’ll see there. He’s scared and it hurts-- in all the good ways it hurts deliciously that he opens his eyes, letting his tears fall freely as he finds the tall male’s gaze.

Chanyeol’s eyes.

Chanyeol’s eyes-- they always spoke of many things.

 

But as Baekhyun finds himself standing there, with his pulse rapid, with his heart at his throat, he comes to surrender himself. Because Chanyeol leans in, the male’s hand encasing his cheek as he holds him in place.

Baekhyun finds all the right words in Chanyeol’s lips.

 

With that one simple touch, the pain in Baekhyun’s heart is gone. He cries, pulling the male’s hands away from his face as he wraps his arms around the tall male, tipping his toes to kiss him back. Kiss him all the years’ worth of their separation back. Give it all back.

When they part, Baekhyun’s heart is at peace. The tears keep flowing, but the flowers are on their way to life.

Chanyeol’s eyes are pooled with unshed tears as he looks back at him, the tall male thumbing along his lower lip as he looks into his eyes. That desperate gaze, “don’t.” Chanyeol says for a start.

A hand pulls Baekhyun’s body against the male, and he wraps his hand around his waist. He still can’t believe it. He won’t believe it. Not yet.

“Please don’t let me walk away from you again.” Chanyeol mutters against his forehead as the male rests his lips there, ghosting over his skin and Baekhyun just feels like crying more.

He shakes his head, pulling away so that he could lean on Chanyeol’s chest another time.

“I won’t.” Baekhyun traces the words over the male’s chest.

 

Right where his heart beats.

Baekhyun doesn’t realize it himself, but slowly… His own heart is finding itself beating in the same rhythm.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: On late sleepless nights Chanyeol would find himself knocking on his ex’s door, offering hot coffee because those used to be their dates.


End file.
